HOW TO: Claim Your Nonprofit’s “Company Page” on LinkedIn

Odds are your nonprofit has a “Company Page” on LinkedIn. If any of your past staff, interns, or volunteers have a personal profile on LinkedIn and they have added their position at your nonprofit to their work “Experience,” then your nonprofit does indeed have a LinkedIn Company Page. If not, then you can easily create one.

Either way, LinkedIn is now the 12th most visited website in the United States and with almost 100 million active users, you should claim, enhance, and monitor your nonprofit’s Company Page. For example, the Taproot Foundation has uploaded a logo, a description, their location, website, Tweets, and utilized the “Services” functionality:

Company Page :: Taproot Foundation Overview

Company Page :: Taproot Foundation Services

To either claim your nonprofit’s Company Page or create a new one, follow the steps below:

1) Go to “Add a Company” from the “Company Pages Home” and enter your nonprofit name. If your nonprofit already has a page, you will be prompted to claim it. If not, you are then asked to create one. It’s also worth noting that another easy way to find your page is to go your Personal Profile > Work Experience and click the Page icon next your nonprofit’s name:

2) Once your Page is found (or not), then complete the process to claim or create a page. It’s important to find your page first because often LinkedIn members will incorrectly name your nonprofit on their LinkedIn Personal Profile, thus also creating a Company Page for your nonprofit incorrectly named and difficult to find in searches. So, before you rush into creating a new Company Page, search multiple possibilities of your nonprofit’s name, including your acronym. Also, it’s important to note that you can not use a Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc. email address when claiming or creating a Company Page. It must be an email address connected to your nonprofit’s name, such as info@amnesty.org.

3) Set-up your Company Page! Over the last year LinkedIn has added increased functionality to Company Pages. Initially, all you could do was upload a logo, add a company description and website, and insert a RSS/News Feed. Now you and others can “Follow” your nonprofit, and you can embed your Tweets and post Services. Again, the Taproot Foundation’s Company Page is a great example to follow and mimic when setting up your page.

Related Links:
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Use Twitter and LinkedIn
Social Media for Nonprofit Organizations LinkedIn Group